Dr. Richard Selznick- the Shut Down Learner

The next few shows will feature an interview I did with Richard Selznick PhD. Dr. Selznick is a psychologist and head of the Cooper University Learning Center in New Jersey, and has written a great new book entitled "The Shut-Down Learner". The Shut-Down Learner deals with the middle-school/early highschool aged kids who begin to turn off from school. They start to feel beaten down by the system, and are no longer fully engaged by school. As a result, these kids can easily become behavior problems or potential drop-outs, as they cease to find school worth their time and effort.

In the first part of our interview, we discuss how parents first come to see someone like Dr. Selznick. We discuss how much Moms tend to be the person who first thinks help is needed, and the Wheel of Professionals who each see the child through their own lens and perspective, but only the people at the hub of the wheel can see the whole child. We also discuss what a shut-down learner looks like, and that it's often an accumulation of many years of tension, anxiety and failures that tend to catch up with a child as they progress through school. Dr. Selznick sees lots of families in distress because of the constant battles about homework and school issues, with the underlying tension being caused by a child's learning disability and misunderstanding the cause of the problems.

Click here to listen to Dr Richard Selznick- the Shut Down Learner, Part I